Feminism conference aims to challenge gendered notions of 'making'

ASU hosting event for 1st time

It has been more than a century since women first called for the right to equal pay — yet they still make only 77 cents to a man’s dollar, according to 2012 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“As a Baby Boomer who was very active [in politics] when I was young, I would have thought that the battles would be very different at this moment,” said Maureen Goggin, professor of English at Arizona State University. “But they’re very similar.” Professors Maureen Goggin (left) and Shirley Rose are organizers of the 10th biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference: “Women’s Ways of Making," which will run Oct. 28-31 on the Tempe campus. Photo by Courtney Pedroza/ASU NowDownload Full Image

Last hosted in 2013 at Stanford University, the conference is being hosted at ASU for the first time.

Goggin and Rose proposed the theme for this year.

“Women are often seen and depicted as passive, and so we thought why don’t we do something active that would display all the things that women make and have made, and produce and have produced,” said Goggin.

Rose added, “This is also the anniversary of a publication of a very important work in feminist studies, ‘Women’s Ways of Knowing.’ So we kind of played on that title, knowing that all of our attendees would hear the resonance of that in the theme.”

The conference will feature a variety of activities, from panel discussions about such topics as “Clothing as a Rhetorical Practice” to a hike on South Mountain.

And Goggin is quick to point out that it’s not just women who are welcome at the conference: “It’s people doing feminist work. It’s men and women, fighting for equality for everybody.”

For example, Department of English graduate teaching associate Steven Hopkins will present on the theme of “women’s ways of learning,” with a focus on the digital realm.

The conference also has a tradition of facilitating mentorships, according to Rose.

”There’s a strong emphasis on helping one another, bringing along graduate students, exploring the work-life balance at all stages of an academic career,” she said.

This year, 12 graduate students from universities outside ASU received travel awards to attend the conference — 10 of those awards are supported by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. A number of current and past ASU students will also be in attendance.

Dawn Opel recently received her doctorate in rhetoric, composition and linguistics from ASU, where she is currently pursuing postdoctoral research with the Institute for Humanities Research. She will host an interactive session that turns the concept of first-year composition classes on its head. Participants will move from expressing ideas via traditional longhand writing in journals to physically making something, and finally to coding it, using a game from the MIT Media Lab called Scratch.

“We’re really interested in seeing the way that digital writing or making changes the way we teach writing and communicate with one another,” said Opel.

“Also, computational literacies, like coding, are seen as traditionally male-dominated spaces, so we’re looking to open that up. One of the things that’s interesting about this conference is, when you think of ‘women’s ways of making,’ you think of arts and crafts. So we thought it was important to promote women who work in digital spaces, and shed light on male-dominated spaces and how women work in them and how they might work in them in the future.”

The conference will feature two events that are free and open to the public without registration: a screening of the documentary film “Threads” from 5-6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, in the Pima Auditorium of the Memorial Union, and a performance by the Scottsdale Chorus, an affiliate of the Sweet Adelines International, at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, in the Evelyn Smith Music Theatre on the Tempe campus.

Emma Greguska

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In 2012, 21-year-old engineer Sivakumar Palaniswamy witnessed what he described as a heartbreaking sight in an infant care unit at a renowned hospital in India: A single halogen bulb hung from the ceiling, illuminating several newborns in bassinets, purportedly for therapeutic purposes.The bulb was to treat newborns suffering from jaundice, a condition that causes yellowing of skin. In the most se...

Students have attracted nearly half-million dollars in seed funding

In 2012, 21-year-old engineer Sivakumar Palaniswamy witnessed what he described as a heartbreaking sight in an infant care unit at a renowned hospital in India: A single halogen bulb hung from the ceiling, illuminating several newborns in bassinets, purportedly for therapeutic purposes.

The bulb was to treat newborns suffering from jaundice, a condition that causes yellowing of skinThe skin discoloration takes place due to the accumulation of a yellowish pigment called bilirubin, produced as a byproduct of the breakdown of red blood cells.. In the most severe cases, the condition can result in deafness, cerebral palsy or other forms of brain damage.

Six out of every 10 infants worldwide are born with jaundice. It is treated with the help of phototherapy — exposing a newborn to certain wavelengths of light for prescribed periods of time.

However, in the hospital in India, it didn’t take Palaniswamy long to figure out that a single halogen lamp wasn’t an appropriate or adequate solution to the problem.

“I found out that phototherapy devices were either too expensive or required a steady supply of electricity to provide adequate care to newborns in need, resources that aren’t easily available in a developing country,” he said. “Infants were suffering due to a condition that is entirely treatable. I realized that the entire approach to treating infant jaundice needed improvement.”

Palaniswamy wanted to help.

The chance to change lives

In the last year, medical device startup NeoLight, founded by Palaniswamy and a group of Arizona State University students, is on its way to transforming the treatment of infant jaundice worldwide.

With the help of two separate versions — one for the developed world and another for use in developing countries — the device has piqued the interest of health providers and investors alike, and NeoLight leadership has raised nearly $475,000 for further development.

The disruptive technology has also led NeoLight to be one of only nine startups to be selected from hundreds across the world in the social-impact category for the South by Southwest Eco Startup Showcase held in October in Austin, Texas.

Before coming to ASU, Palaniswamy began working on an initial prototype. His work on it continued upon joining the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering to pursue a master’s degree in biomedical engineering.

It was at ASU that Palaniswamy joined forces with his childhood friend Vivek Kopparthi, who was pursuing a master’s degree in business management at the W. P. Carey School of Business; Chase Garrett, a master’s degree student majoring in business and legal studies; and Deepakshyam Krishnaraju, a mechanical design engineering major from Fulton Schools, to launch NeoLight.

The team applied to enter ASU’s 2014-2015 Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, and began to develop disruptive technology that would help ease the discomfort of newborns and their families.

Edson accelerates progress

As part of the 2014-2015 Edson program cohort, the NeoLight team has been able to gather seed grants to develop a working prototype that is slightly bigger than a computer tablet. The device is fitted with 6-10 LED bulbs that produce a stronger intensity of light distributed evenly to an infant’s entire body. This results in quicker, more energy-efficient treatment of jaundice with no side effects, such as burns or rashes due to exposure to ultraviolet light.

Through ASU’s connections, the startup was able to test the device at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. It was there that the team realized that the effective treatment of infant jaundice wasn’t just a challenge in the developing world.

“Most of the commonly used phototherapy devices in the U.S. are unwieldy,” said Kopparthi. “Additionally, the technology used doesn’t allow for a quicker and energy-efficient way to treat an infant with jaundice based on the severity of the case.”

To further address place-based challenges in treating jaundice in two very different parts of the world, the team produced two versions of the device.

SunLife, a low-cost, solar-powered version of the device with a simple on-off option, would protect infants from jaundice in low-income regions.

Priced higher than SunLife, SkyLife is an advanced device offering varying levels of light intensity for varying severity of infant jaundice. Parents of newborns suffering from jaundice could also use SkyLife for at-home treatment and avoid an expensive return to the hospital for further treatment.

Kopparthi and his team members have continued to improve the devices, seeking counsel from mentors and experts available through the ASU’s various investor and mentor networks. After completing the Edson program, the startup was invited into Startup Mill, a program jointly run by ASU and its technology transfer arm Arizona Technology Enterprises, which provides top ASU and community startups with research and acceleration services.

With the help of Startup Mill resources, NeoLight was able to tap into high-level talent, including medical device expert Gary Lauderbach as a director on its board; raise seed funding to gain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; and connect with medical centers in Phoenix and Los Angeles to continue testing the device.

NeoLight is part of the group of ASU startups that have raised nearly $239 million in external funding in the past four years.

“We couldn’t be where we are now without ASU’s support,” said Kopparthi. “ASU believed in our idea and gave us credibility; provided us office space, legal help and seed funding to develop working prototypes; connected us with the right mentors, investors and networks; and helped us find team members who believed in the same vision.”

NeoLight is now focused on raising $3 million to commercialize the production of both versions of the product. Using the conscious capital model of business that lays prime emphasis on purpose, they hope to help U.S. hospitals conserve precious resources. They also hope to partner with other phototherapy medical device startups and companies to treat cases of infant jaundice in the developing world.

“We don’t see other organizations working to prevent infant jaundice in developing countries as competition,” said Garrett. “This entirely preventable health condition requires that we support each other and build upon our successes.”

Kopparthi agreed.

“Every year, nearly 5 million babies suffering from jaundice don’t receive adequate care,” he said. “If we can reduce that number by any percentage, we’d consider ourselves successful.”